Description

There is a wobble in this book. It has been going fast all day.

It cannot go out. But it can go slow.

Put both hands flat on the page. Push, harder than that. Shake the book — and watch the wobble get bigger, because that is what happens first, and it is allowed. Squeeze the edges until your hands are tired. Turn a page as slowly as you can. Blow at the corner, twice, the second one slower. Then hold the book completely still, which is the hard one.

Every move changes the wobble on the page. It gets longer. It gets slower. By the last page it is almost a straight line.

It never leaves.

The wobble did not go. It was never going to. It went slow — and that is what wobbles do, when a body helps them.

Nothing here has to be read aloud. A child who cannot read yet can do the whole book. Every instruction is a real thing a body can do afterwards, without the book: press, push, shake, stamp, squeeze, slow down, blow out long, hold still, whisper, feet on the floor.

For grown-ups: the order matters. A body already going fast cannot be talked into stillness, and ‘take a deep breath’ arrives too early to be useful. So this book starts with effort and noise and comes down with the child rather than ahead of them. The long blow out lands ninth, not first. A child may want to stop halfway — that is a complete use of the book. There is a note for parents, teachers and SENCOs at the back, and a page listing every move so they can be used any time.

From the Little Signals world: quiet stories and tools that help small humans notice their signals and find their way back to steady. No quick fixes. No hype. Regulation before optimisation.